But they were still there. Being terrorised and injured and murdered.
But for the most part they were still alive. Rae wasn't sure what the Xiets gained from that. Maybe they thought it was fun to have a whole population of people cowering from them. Maybe they were just that sadistic and twisted that they thought it was an okay thing to do. Rae personally hoped that one day their failure to exterminate his people would turn around and bite them in the ass. He could just see it. His people with guns — real guns, not the crappy broken things he'd seen their soldiers carrying a few times — aimed at the cowering figures of Xiets. Fingers itching towards the triggers.
Rae slammed his fist into the glass of the window, hearing the cracks worsen with satisfaction, before storming out of the room. As he made his way down the crumbling staircase he mentally prepared himself for what he knew was waiting for him outside.
SIX
It was hot. And it was all I could think about.
That and the ridiculous amount of dirt and gravel that had found its way into my boots. Into my hair. And at times, when it got picked up on the odd gust of wind, it even got into my mouth. It was sharp, it tasted bad, and it hurt.
It was nothing compared to the thirst.
I wasn't quite sure how long we'd been wandering around without so much as one sip of water, but it hadn't rained in at least three days. The blistering sun had long since evaporated any water that hadn't been absorbed into the hard, cracked ground.
We weren't doing so well, that much my parched brain could understand. I had to be careful trying to talk. It didn't take much to rip my chapped lips and leave them bleeding. Which I preferred not to do. Loosing any kind of liquid would probably have been the tipping point.
Not having enough water in my system not only caused my head to pound and tongue to turn into a strip of sandpaper, but it was wreaking havoc on my eyes. They stung mercilessly, and I could tell without looking that they were ringed with red irritation, streaked through with inflamed blood vessels. I could tell just by looking at Gabby. Though it was getting increasingly harder to draw my attention away from the ground in front of me.
It was impossible to focus past the painful aching that spread across my brain and focused behind my eyes. That stabbed out at my temples with every breath. Every movement.
But still we continued on. We'd get out of here eventually. We had to. No way were we going to die pathetically on the dried grass of a dead civilisation. We were going to survive.
We were going to live.
"Can you see any houses yet?" I could barely make out what Gabby was saying through the cracking in her voice. As it was she spoke in a harsh whisper barely louder than her heavy breathing. We were both so unbelievably tired and thirsty that we couldn't make our voices any louder or clearer.
I couldn't remember the last time we'd been able to drink water. We'd caught some the last time it had rained. It barely filled our water bottles and seemed pathetic when compared to the amounts we'd been managing to scavenge from some of the houses that were never fully cleared out. But at this moment I could think of nothing more than the drops of hydration that fell from the sky and kept us alive. Only now they had abandoned us to wander aimlessly, all of our thoughts going towards the hope that more would come. Like a furious god. Leaving us to wonder hopelessly what we had done to anger the mythical strength of rain?
Water wasn't our only struggle, although it was by far our most deadly. It was also too hot for sleep. And the few times the temperature did drop we were too afraid when darkness came. But we couldn't stay awake for ever. So we slept in shifts, one of us staying awake to watch for incoming attackers. But with our weakened bodies, our minds weren't as sharp as they could be. Not to mention there was the constant fear of falling asleep, in our exhausted state, without waking the other to take over. We probably only let each other sleep for about twenty minutes before waking the other up.
We tried to keep moving as much as possible. Pushed by fear and hope that something better would come soon.
At least now, with the flat ground beneath us, we felt more confident moving in the dark. There were clearer roads, that went for longer and kept us on some sort of path. It limited the chances of us backtracking, or tripping over some unforeseen obstacle hidden by the night and hurting ourselves. Though I still wasn't a big fan of us being out in the open.
"No, nothing," I breathed in reply, struggling to put one foot in front of the other. I looked up I noticed something blurred in the distance.
"Wait. Hold on a second, I think I see something. Gabby do you see that?" My voice tried to raise slightly in excitement, while Gabby struggled, and ultimately failed, to open her eyes wide enough to see it. Whatever my eyes were looking at was a dull grey, and very far away. But it almost looked like a building. One that stood tall and strong rather than half crumbled to the ground from bombings and age. I rubbed my my eyes, ignoring the dust and grime layered on my skin. It was still blurry, but it was definitely some kind of industrial building.
"Oh my god, we're saved." I was sure Gabby would have been sobbing were it not for the lack of water in her system. But if her mouth was as dry as mine, and her throat as scorched, she wouldn't be tearing up any time soon. It was like I had a mouthful of gravel.
We broke into a shuffled run, the fastest we could make ourselves move, as we raced ahead to meet this sanctuary. It didn't occur to me that it might have been full of Xiets, or empty. I just needed water. And shelter. Before I turned into a very burnt piece of jerky. Or disintegrated and became nothing more than dust on a dirt road. Gabby moved with her eyes shut tightly, fighting off the pain and the brightness.
As we stumbled forward, my vision refused to clear on the image we headed towards. It didn't seem to be getting any closer either. But that was just because of how far away it was. It had to be.
I felt my eyelids drop closed against the harsh beating of the sun. When they flung open again I stopped in my tracks and reached out to grab hold of my sister's arm weakly. It was enough to stop her.
"What is it?"
I blinked furiously, hoping that what had just happened hadn't happened.
"No. No, no, no, no, no!" Gabby slowly turned her expression to one of concern at the open pain and panic in my dying voice. And slight agitation at the fact that I was slowing us down. I let out a crackling sob, shaking my pounding head furiously.
This could not be happening. It just wasn't fair.
"What is it?" She almost snapped, the energy lacking in the demand.
"It's not there," I forced the words out of my mouth, wishing that they weren't true.
"What?" The defeat and pure hopelessness in her voice almost broke me. But I wasn't sure I could go any further down that road. I already wanted to burst into tears. But I somehow didn't think it was a very wise decision in the middle of this burning hell we'd managed to wander into. Besides, I didn't have any left. I couldn't cry anymore. That just made me sadder.
"I closed my eyes for less than a second and it disappeared." I could barely hear myself, but I could tell that Gabby got the message by the strangled noise that leaked out of her throat. I couldn't believe this was happening. Was I delirious? Losing my mind?
No, this was something I'd heard of before. Liam had told me about it. His made up bedtime stories often ventured out past our borders into a fantasy adventure realm. This was something that happened to people in the desert. The heat and desperation distorted their minds and their vision. They saw things that weren't really there. And it normally ended with them getting themselves killed. Or near enough.
"A mirage," Gabby muttered out, stumbling on her feet and tumbling to the hard ground, kicking up a cloud of fine dirt. She blinked very slowly, lying on her side. For all the world she looked like some kind of wounded animal.
My brain couldn't form thoughts around this. I wasn't sure how to fix it. I crouched down beside her, dropping onto my butt. I nudged her shoulder gently with my elbow.
> Then my palm.
"Come on Gabby. You need to get up."
She kept blinking, though her eyes appeared slightly glazed over.
Something wasn't right.
Her eyes flickered around wildly, trying to meet my gaze, before they closed again.
"Gabby. Come on," panic crept into my words.
Her eyes stayed shut.
I shook her shoulder slightly.
"Gabby?" She didn't respond. Not even a grumble of disturbed sleep, like those I'd heard from her ever since I could remember.
She wasn't getting up.
"Wake up," I pleaded into her ear. A few stray drops of sweat dripped into my eyes and stung sharply.
"Please Gabby," my voice cracked and I tried to swallow past the growing lump in my throat.
"Gabby," my voice rose in urgency.
She wasn't waking up.
She wasn't moving.
If it weren't for her chest moving, just barely with every breath, I'd have been convinced she was already dead. But I couldn't deny that she was dying.
No.
She couldn't die.
I wouldn't allow it.
I wouldn't lose her too.
I couldn't.
"Gabrielle get up!" I was surprised at the volume my voice could pick up. I almost sounded like a normal person, if you ignored the dry crackle smothering my words.
"Please get up. Please don't do this, I can't leave you here. I can't lose you too. Gabby please," I begged my sister's unconscious form, hoping against every point of logic that she would open her eyes, sit up, and smile at me the way she always did. That she'd lead me away to safety. It didn't look like any of that was going to happen.
In all of my panic I had forgotten about the very real danger that surrounded me at every edge. I was sitting with my arse in the dirt, completely exposed to any approaching enemies, and I was screaming. My voice may not have been particularly loud by normal standards, but in the dead silence of this heat, I may as well have been screeching.
In a bout of panic I started to violently shake my sister by her shoulder. I don't know what I thought that would help with. Whatever was wrong with her would only be solved with an intense amount of water, a good rest away from the scorching heat, and a decent meal. None of which I had.
Looking up at the sky I saw it was a crystal clear, bright blue. It didn't look like the rain was going to bless me with its presence any time soon. Not that I was all too surprised. The universe seemed to want me to be as miserable as possible.
What was I going to do? I couldn't leave her there. I was in no shape to even attempt carrying her. There was no help anywhere to be seen. And I couldn't get water.
But I couldn't just let us stay here and die.
The hopelessness of the situation was settling itself on my shoulders. I curled inwards, hunched over Gabby's unmoving form. This wasn't happening. We were supposed to find somewhere safer. Despite everything, I had let myself hope that we would find something better. We might have ended up better off if we'd just stayed in Palla. At least then we wouldn't have been chasing a false hope.
But instead I insisted we leave. I took my sister out here. Away from the moderate safety we had back home. I did this. She was dying and I couldn't help her. I'd done this to her. It was my fault.
My breath started to come faster, and faster, and I was gasping for air. My eyes burned with the inability to produce tears.
I had run out of options.
I looked up from where I was staring helplessly at Gabby's closed eyelids and immediately froze. There was someone heading towards me from the far distance. Only they were moving a lot faster than I could. And no matter how many times I blinked they refused to disappear. They were real. And as they got closer it became apparent that they carried a gun. A big, black, scary looking gun.
My eyes widened, involuntarily letting in a fleck of airborne dust. I tried to blink it away as I frantically flung myself to my feet and grabbed hold of one of my sister's arms. I knew this wouldn't work, but I had to at least try. I started to tug my sister along the cracked dirt road, backwards. Leading her away from the figure that increased its speed at the sight of my movement. I don't know how I mustered the strength to move her.
I stumbled and tripped over myself in my hurry.
Now someone comes to kill us. After everything we'd been through. Now someone wanted to do it.
No.
No thank you. Not today. That wasn't fair.
"Stop!" I ignored the voice and its deep authoritative tone.
He could bloody well stop. He was the one coming at me with a gun. I would not stop. He couldn't make me. Not without shooting me. The bullet proof vest that I still wore under my jacket wouldn't offer me much protection if he shot me in the head. In fact it was so loose on my body now that he could probably get a good shot in my torso too, if the angle was right.
A scream escaped my throat when I saw the gun turn towards us and heard it fire. The ground next to me seemed to explode, dirt and dust flying everywhere and sticking to Gabby's face. He'd shot at us.
We were dead. We were so dead. We were going to die and be dead.
Gabby wasn't even going to know. Maybe that was better. Blissful ignorance. She might not even feel the pain if she didn't wake up. Unlike me.
What would it feel like to be shot?
I looked warily towards the figure getting closer to us with every step. I wasn't ready to give up. I would not let my sister die like this. I would not let myself die like this. We were not going to die.
SEVEN
The figure was finally close enough for it to be completely hopeless for me to escape. With or without Gabby. Not that I'd had much of a chance before. Especially not when that gun was still aimed at us. I had to take it as a good sign that he hadn't shot it again. I couldn't afford to think about the alternative.
"Leave us alone!" My voice ripped its way out of my throat and threw itself at this stranger, this madman. Murderer. Terrorist.
I could see now that he was really just a boy, not much older than I was. Maybe closer to Gabby in age. And someone had trusted him with a gun. And his first instinct was to come towards us and shoot it. It was reckless. It was a display of unbeaten power.
He had to be a Xiet.
"Step away from the body," came his reply in a hard voice. The barrel of the gun was now trained between my eyes. I felt a shiver run down my spine.
So this was what it felt like to stare death in the eyes. The crazed eyes, mad with murder.
"Get away!" I screamed. The erratic breathing coming from my lungs could only be described as tearless sobs.
I was too afraid to move.
I couldn't forget that the safety on his gun was off. I didn't need him to shoot at us again to prove it. He wouldn't miss that time.
I started frantically shaking Gabby's shoulder again, hoping against everything that she would wake up. But it was useless. I don't know why I was so surprised. Hope never got me anywhere.
"Hey! You filthy murderer! I said step away!" I stopped at the threat in his voice.
"What?" I tried to raise my voice above the sound of my beating heart. I wondered, briefly, if he could hear the erratic thumping too.
"You heard me. Move."
"I'm not a murderer."
"What do you call this then?" My legs wavered beneath me, shifting my weight precariously. He thought I'd killed my own sister. What did I do now? Did I tell him the truth? Would he even believe me?
He could turn out to be my biggest enemy and use anything I told him to kill everyone left back home. Or he might be able to help Gabby. Looking down at her dirty face I was forced to make my decision.
Looking up again my eyes moved from the barrel of the gun to the person behind it and zeroed in on his face. His eyes were a deep brown, though his skin wasn't much different to mine. He'd evidently been able to protect his from the painful burn of the sun. And he'd clearly had easy access to water. I envied him
the ability to sweat without feeling the life drain from him slowly. He was healthy. He looked like a normal guy.
Surrounded by stray freckles, those eyes didn't look like they could house a world of evil. I guess I'd have to trust that. Go with my gut instinct. And hope I lived to not regret it.
"She's my sister," I started, stopping for a second to swallow back the dryness in my mouth that was catching my words like a woven net.
"She's not dead. Now will you please leave us." The doubt written across his face almost snapped my last thread of faith. But then he slowly lowered the gun.
I would have cried out in relief had I the energy. Cried with renewed hope. Call me crazy if you want to, I was running out of things to be grateful for.
I returned to my initial struggle to move Gabby and get us away from this random person, who I still considered to be a potential psychopath. He might not have been pointing the gun at my face anymore, but it was a hard thing to forget. It was still clutched tightly in his hand, aimed at the ground with the safety off. And I wasn't completely stupid enough to think he'd turn around and offer me any help.
"Hey, I never said you could move."
Damn it.
Now the weapon made its way back to its original target, though this time it was angled slightly to the side. He'd miss if he shot like this, though the warning was clear. I stopped moving and watched him like a cat. Waited for my moment to move.
"You've come a long way, haven't you? You're lost out here. And you're hungry. You're thirsty. Burning." At the mention of our current physical state, I felt the shallowness radiate from my stomach. I continued to stare.
"I know who you are." I eyed the boy in front of me as he continued. That's all he really was. He only had the power here because of the piece of metal clutched in his pale hand. Why should I listen to his lies?
Bright Cold Day Page 6